Term limiters to try for a rerun

>b Term limit supporters gear up for a second try at ousting career lawmakers.

By Gina Binole

Staff Writer

Just a few days into 1992 and term limit proponents say they're back with a new and improved initiative Washingtonians will pass.

"We listened to what the voters were saying," said Sherry Bockwinkel, a chief organizer of the unsuccessful I553 campaign and the new yet-to-be-numbered proposal. Both call for a cap on the amount of time elected officials can serve in government.

LIMIT, or Limitation Initiative Mandating Incumbent Terms, would have been the country's first retroactive measure on term limits. It would have ousted U.S. House Speaker Tom Foley and the state's present U.S. House delegation after 1994. Most of the state Legislature would have been forced out under I-553 as well.

But voters rejected the proposal 54 percent to 46 percent on Nov. 5.

Bockwinkel, a Tacoma businesswoman, said this time around, the initiative was drafted by an attorney who specializes in constitutional law. Previously, the constitutionality of the measure had been questioned, but the Supreme Court ruled it would be wrong to review I-553's legality before it was put to a vote.

Bockwinkel also said they have addressed several concerns raised by the electorate and incorporated them into the new document.

"The retroactivity; it has been removed," she said.

The new proposal also requires that at least nine other states pass similar laws before the limits to the terms of federal lawmakers would be implemented.

Opponents of the original measure argued that the initiative would restrict and diminish the state's clout in Washington, D.C. by throwing out experienced legislators.

The latest limits proposal also allows lawmakers to run after their time is up, but only as a write-in candidate and not as an affiliate of a specific party.

"We just don't want them to run on the power of their incumbency," she said.

The initiative will be numbered and submitted following a news conference in Olympia today drive to obtain 150,000 plus one signature will begin at the end of the month, Bockwinkel said.

But Norman Turrill, board president of Washington's Common Cause, said he still doubts term limits is the answer to what ails the nation's political system.

"The whole idea is still bad for me from the good government standpoint that it restrict's the public's choices," he said.

Common Cause, along with the State Grange, the League of Women's Voters and the state Demoocratic Party opposed the original initiative.

"We think we have a better solution," Turrill said. Common Cause is working toward drafting an initiative that reforms the campaign finance system by limiting contributions.

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